Nuno shoulders blame for Wolves defeat

Goals from Kieran Dowell and Ben Osborn just before half-time were enough to give Nottingham Forest a shock 2-0 win at Molineux.

It was only Wolves’ second home defeat of the campaign but draws for nearest rivals Derby County and Cardiff City meant their lead was only trimmed to nine points to second and 11 points to third, with 18 games of the season remaining.

Nuno made a bold half-time switch, withdrawing wing backs Matt Doherty and Barry Douglas for winger Helder Costa and midfielder Morgan Gibbs-White as he chased the game.

While he defended that move, the head coach did concede that he perhaps hadn’t stressed just how far Wolves still have to go to clinch promotion.

He said: “I’m responsible, maybe for not telling the boys that there’s still a long way to go and nobody can relax here.

“So it’s me first – it was my responsibility first of all, because the way the team plays is the way I want them to play.

“We must improve and we have to bounce back from this immediately.

“We always do the same analysis, the standard is high and we have to improve and be better than we were.

“It was one of the games that we weren’t as good as we could and should be.

“The opponent didn’t create anything. I think we should have done better.

“There’s still a long way to go, Ipswich are the next opponent.

“Teams are trying to adapt themselves (to play Wolves), sometimes they succeed and sometimes they don’t.

“Congratulations to Nottingham but they achieved two goals when we were the better side.

“This is football, sometimes it happens to you and sometimes the other team.”

Forest goalscorer Osborn felt they were good value for the win, which was Aitor Karanka’s first as boss since replacing the sacked Mark Warburton.

“It is a tremendous result,” Osborn said. “To come away to top of the league and get the three points is a really good feeling.

“We knew if we could limit their chances, which I thought we did, then they wouldn’t have a chance of getting back into it.”